Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Toffe wrote:

When I cut the bambo to make the utaguchi... Where on the the node should I cut it?
Should I take it off in the middle of the node (in the ring where the two sections meet), or should I saw it a bit above and file down?

Study these images carefully:

Thanks guys!

Nope.. I had a post on the utaguchi, but not about where to cut the bamboo.
And yes I'm VERY excited about this! But I'm in no rush, what so ever. The thing is that bamboo is extremely hard to come by here in Sweden, so I'm milking any information about shakuhachi that I can before making more mistakes than necessary. And I can think of no better place to ask but here!

My first flute came out allright. It's in perfect concert pitch in both octaves! A bit of that buzzy etno-sound to it and very playable.
It's a bit hard to glide between the notes, I might try to enlarge the holes and make them conical towards the bore.
It's better than any of my cheap ebay/amazon-shakuhachi, and I'm happy with it as a start. It turned out a good folk-etno-flute, even if it's not near the real stuff. And looking at the work you guys are making, I just can't wait to get som more and better bamboo! I might give this one as a present to the women that got me the bamboo. I think I'll practice som binding on this one too. Will post some pics for you to laugh about

I went to the shop looking at Tung oil today. Expensive stuff, but the shopkeeper said it's the coolest oil around. All natural and really tiny molecules. Is that what you use?

Dudes.. this is the life. Listening to good music, my baby daughter on her blanket laughing as daddy files away on the bamboo, and just enjoying crafting with my hands! I'm in love!

Every flute is like a new child, they look a bit different, act a bit different, have curves and bumps in different places.
I begin the Utaguchi above the node so that after shaping, the bottom of the curve is still above the inside of the node and I leave about 1mm of the inside of the node, this can possibly help the note to sustain through change of fingerings.
You can see some of my flutes under 'Introductions - Kia Ora from Aotearoa'.

Enjoy !

Kel.

Evan:

How do you apply tung oil to the inside?
I'm thinking that I might try to cover up the holes and bell end with tape and apply the oil from the utaguchi side. Then just lean it back and forward to make the oil spread over the entire inside. But maybe I need to polish it up also? Sliding a piece of cloth trough there on a stick or using a string.

Do you oil and polish up the utaguchi as well, or do yo leave that alone?

I'm guessing the bore is the place where it's most important to protect, and maybe the outside is more for looks.

// Toffe.

Toffe wrote:

How do you apply tung oil to the inside? I'm thinking that I might try to cover up the holes and bell end with tape and apply the oil from the utaguchi side.

I've done exactly what you're suggesting, with two flutes.  I used electrical tape (it won't stick long under the influence of the oil for very long, but it was good enough.)  I dumped in a fair amount of oil, held the open end closed with my thumb, and sloshed it around.  Then let it drain out.  I saved the "used" oil for a future use, so I allowed myself to use a moderate amount, to ensure good coverage.  I ran clean, lint-free cloths through the bores a few times to remove more oil.  It took several weeks before the oiled surface felt "hard".  I did two coats, about two months apart, in this manner.  The resulting bores don't look very different, color-wise.  But they feel smooth and hard and I notice that breath condensation, in the bore after playing for a while, really beads up, so I'm happy with the results.  I'll speculate that the hardened bore may now play slightly louder and/or brighter also.  Maybe.

I have tried tung oil on the outside of a flute, but it made virtually no visible difference, so I won't likely bother again.

My utaguchi was finished and sealed before oiling the bore.

You can get pure (slow-drying, I believe) or several fast-drying polymerized/catylized versions.  I was scared of the mega-fast drying variety because it wasn't clear -what- they were adding to reduce the drying time to mere hours.  Potentially toxic.  Caveat emptor.

-Darren.

evan kubota wrote:

Were you using regular tung oil (sold for wood finishing) for your bore coating? It still took weeks to cure?

Yes, it was tung oil for wood finishing.  The brand I used was "Circa 1850 Tung Oil", made in Canada.

The bore was was playable within a day but, yes, it remained tacky for weeks.  The final surface is great.

-Darren.

evan kubota wrote:

I have my doubts about the ability of tung oil for waterproofing, although I like the fact that it doesn't negatively affect the surface texture of the wood like many polyurethane finishes. I need to do some tests to find how many (fairly light) applications are required for a given level of moisture repelling ability.

Acctually... Tung oil may even be used to waterproof boats. So flutes should be no problem. I've seen some nice woodpieces with tung oil applied in 5 coats, steel wooled between them. It looked great and gave a hard shiny waterproof surface. If you can find a good way to polish the bore after the coating I think 2-4 coatings should do it.. Unless you breath acid into you shakuhachi. But in that case, the quality of a flutes bore is your least problem.

// T

Last edited by Toffe (2006-06-18 16:29:43)

Yeah.. that's what I was thinking. But maybe one could make a special polishing tool as the node clearing tools are made.

Take a stick or rod (maybe a 1 cm wide bamboo-stick.. for the feel of it). Stick a thick nail in one end, with a big head. Make a ball of cloth or thread, around it. Maybe a cottons sheet, cut up in 1 cm strips and then spin them around the nail until you shape a ball at 1.5 or 2 cm. Then put a square cotton cloth around it and fold it in over the rod. Secure it with steel wire.

That ought to give enough support to be able to polish even between the nodes. The bamboorod is strong enough for you to put much preassure on it when polishing.

Just an idea...

Last edited by Toffe (2006-06-19 15:07:26)